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The Retreat to Moscow

The contracts of the full -time staff at ICSD have just been terminated.

Mark Cooper (CEO) and Roanna Simmons (Operations Manager) have lost their jobs because the ICSD claims its financial situation is in decline.

Despite announcing last October, that they were planning to relocate to Switzerland in order to have ‘neighbourly’ contact with the IOC, they have now retreated to Moscow. the ICSD has now decamped to an office within the National Association of the Deaf of the Russian Federation and Mr Dmitry Rebrov, who works at the National Association has been given a temporary appointment to replace Cooper. These changes are subject to approval of the ICSD Executive Committee.

The ICSD apparently held a meeting with the Russian Federation government on January 14th to seek their final approval for the 18th Winter Deaflympics in Khanty-Mansiysk 2015. So far, no announcements have been made. There is speculation that there will be a repeat of the 2011 cancellation of the Winter Deaflympics when the event organiser was subsequently imprisoned for misappropriation of funds.

The world sports community is about to see the publication of a new book on the Deaflympics that discusses the importance of strong leadership within the ICSD, the Deaflympic Movement and its relationships with the IOC/IPC and national committees, it also argues that Deaf sport must have a effective working relationship with non-deaf sports organisations and individuals.

You can now order you copy of Same Spirit Different Team from the publishers.